Lilith's Chimera
by revolutiongirl
Summary: A Dark Angel/Neon Genesis Evangelion crossover. Ayanami Rei is a Manticore kid? Misato reveals her past to Max? Max makes friends? What the hell is going on here anyway?
1. Stille Nacht [the Still Night]

  
  
LILITH'S CHIMERA  
a dark angel/shin seiki evangelion crossover  
  
SPOILERS: DARK ANGEL PILOT, FLUSHED, ..AND JESUS BROUGHT A CASSEROLE, MEOW, POLLO LOCO; I.E., ANY AND ALL  
DARK ANGEL EPISODES THAT INCLUDED THOSE DARLING MANTICORE KIDS. EVANGELION   
SERIES LEADING UP TO EPISODE 24. TAKES PLACE BEFORE NAGISA KAWORU [TABRIS, THE 17TH ANGEL AND FIFTH CHILDREN] WAS   
DELIVERED TO NERV BY SEELE.  
  
SUMMARY: IT'S 2015. THE FIFTH CHILD HAS BEEN FOUND. BUT SHE HAS A BARCODE ON HER NECK?!  
PROJECT MANTICORE WAS STARTED IN THE MID 1980'S SHORTLY AFTER RECOBINANT DNA STRATAGIES   
WERE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. THE PERFECT SOLDIER WAS TO BE MANUFACTURED BY  
COMBINING HUMAN DNA AND OTHER ANIMAL DNA TO MAKE THE MOST POWERFUL CHIMERA SOLDIER EVER BORN. BUT  
WAS THERE ANOTHER PURPOSE? DID DONALD MICHAEL LYDECKER AND RENFRO KNOW ABOUT SEELE AND THEIR  
DEAD SEA SCROLLS, AND THE GEHIRN COMMITTEE? THE X5 CROP OF MANTICORE WAS BORN IN THE YEARS 1999 AND 2000--  
YEARS BEFORE AND DURING SECOND IMPACT, BUT PROTECTED FROM IT. WERE THE MANTICORE KIDS REALLY FOR JUST THE PURPOSE OF INFANTRY SOLDIERY?  
12 GENERATION X5 CHILDREN ESCAPED FROM THE MANTICORE BASE IN GILETTE, WYOMING IN 2009. WHERE DID THEY GO?  
A SORT OF ALTERNATE UNIVERSE DARK ANGEL CROSSOVER. MAX GUEVARA, X5-452, NEVER WENT TO SEATTLE. NEVER MET ORIGINAL CINDY,  
SKETCHY, OR EVEN LOGAN CALE. INSTEAD, SHE DECIDED TO GO TO TOKYO-3 TO ESCAPE MANTICORE'S WATCHFUL EYE...BUT WHAT  
WAS SHE GETTING HERSELF, AND HER SIBLINGS UP TO? WILL MANTICORE HUNT HER DOWN ONCE MORE?  
  
1. stille nacht [the still night]  
  
max guevara had just arrived in tokyo-3. she was fifteen, and fresh out of running from manticore in the US. she'd been tired of running.  
she hadn't found zack, or tinga or the others--hell, she never even knew who had made it. her heart hurt whenever she thought of her siblings;  
mischeivous-eyed krit, grinning jondy, serious zack, ever-joking ben...she never knew who made it. now she was  
dressed in a fuku, and going to the local school. she had to blend in, after all. she'd been growing her hair out since the escape to   
hide her barcode. no one could know. it was enemy territory, she had to keep moving.  
  
luckily, she'd taken a crash course in japanese on the way over. since she was a manticore girl she  
absorbed everything quickly. she was prepared to start her new life in tokyo-3.  
  
she never had been really exposed to second impact. manticore, like most G-8 government structures, had  
been reinforced through that sorta thing. but they'd been shown slides in their recon classes, and told about  
the destruction. and about cities like tokyo-2 and tokyo-3. there were such cities in los angeles, new york,  
and washington DC. she knew. the lab techs sometimes had made small talk during routine breath-holding activities  
about what had really happened.  
  
she sighed, and brushed her hair out of her face. that was the past. now, for the future.  
she walked into the school, ready for a new day.  
+++  
akagi ritsuko slammed down the phone. they were doing syncrotests with shinji, and rei, and now coming  
to the end of the experiments. asuka's mind had been too badly damaged with the last angel attack, and now  
they had to overwrite the pilot for unit 02.  
  
"katsuragi-ichi", ritsuko called, "the fifth child has arrived."  
  
"yes, the marduk reports said that she would be the one." misato said, as ritsuko was handing her  
the marduk institute's reports.  
  
"go to the school and get her, take her here." gendo ikari said from behind his hands at his desk,   
"we can't waste any time in intigrating her into unit 02. no time at all."  
  
"yes sir." misato said, and picked up the phone. "get me NERV intelligence. yes? this is katsuragi-ichi  
from project E. go get the fifth child. over and out."  
+++  
"class, this is max guevara, and she is from wyoming, USA. she will be joining us from today foreward.  
i expect you all to help her get integrated into our class."  
  
"hai, hai." the class mumbled, and a girl with brown hair in pigtails bounced up and offered max her hand.  
  
"irrashaimasu! i'm the class representative, hikari." she said.  
  
"max." max smiled cautiously.  
  
"i will help you get caught up with everything."  
  
"arigato." max's tongue rolled over the words, and she smiled. she might like it here.  
  
a few minutes later, a few men in black suits showed up. max felt panic rising within her. she got up from the  
seat she'd just sat down in. she had to leave, and now. were these more men from manticore to take her back?  
  
"guevara max-kun, please come with us."  
  
"why should i?" she asked defiantly, and everyone around them gasped. no one talked to NERV guys like that!  
  
"we're from NERV. please come with us and we will explain on the way." they took her by the arms and led her into the   
hallway. once away from prying eyes, max easily got out of their grip. she formed her fighting position, looking them  
up and down.  
  
"who are you?" she asked in an angry voice, "are you lydecker's men?"  
  
the men looked at her blankly.  
  
"no. we are from NERV, the UN agency. please come with us."  
  
"are you from manticore?"  
  
"no."  
  
"fine. i'll go with you." she said, whipping a knife from her shoe, "but if you're lying, which you probably are,  
you'll be dead."  
  
the men turned their backs and whispered to each other, then turned back around and nodded.  
  
"that will be fine. we did not expect it would be easy for you to cooperate, guevara-kun."  
  
+++  
  
as max rode in the car, she was slowly amazed at the scenery in the desending tokyo-3. they were heading  
straight to geo-front to meet gendo ikari and the rest of the project E committee.  
  
"it's beautiful." she said softly, "the US was so bad after both the pulse and second impact. a double whammy..."  
  
but she remained on guard. she felt a sinking in her stomach as she was taken down into the depths of the earth,  
the valley of the tokai region before second impact, to the geo-front. she was going to go to manticore after all.  
was she? she would have to see what happened before she made a move.   
  
"this is your ID card." they handed her a small ID card with the words "NERV", a barcode [NOT HERS!] and her name  
emblazened across its white surface.  
  
"can't you tell me what this is about? i mean, if i'm going back to manticore, i'd be told. i know that for a fact."  
  
"you're not." one of the men said, and they turned into the lot. they descended further into the bowels of NERV,  
into central dogma.  
  
"what is this place?"  
  
"surely, you know. from your childhood."  
  
max went cold.  
  
"so you know." she said calmly, "does lydecker know?"  
  
"do you think we want to slit our own throats? of course not. japanese-US relations have been bad since the  
whole fiasco with unit 03 and the fourth child."  
  
"you mean..the accident near here? the plane crash?"  
  
"guevara-kun, you surprise me! surely, surely you know that was a coverup. it was an angel."  
  
max flashed back on her childhood.  
  
[max is eight years old, in the classroom. slides of gehirn HQ flashed across the screen. second impact.  
adam, the first angel. lilith, the second angel, hidden in japan. pictures of the then-new MAGI supercomputers and  
a proud, ALIVE, akagi naoko standing close to her achievements. the evangelion experiments.  
  
"you have been created not to be just soldiers, but also, to serve as backups to help humanity. currently,  
in tokyo-2, the evangelion project has been going on for quite sometime. we're hot on creating a bio-humanoid,  
not unlike yourselves, to defend ourselves from any future attacks from these so-called 'angels'." here, lydecker  
used quotation marks in his sarcasm. then he turned serious once more. "but yes, these truly are angels. not the nice  
sweet kind perpetuated by modern christianity. adam, who you see here, also known as the giant of light, wiped out half of humanity  
in the second impact--which happened while all of you were being born. you will help us defend not only this country, but   
this world from further interruptions..."]  
  
when she flashed back to reality, the door was opening to the control panel to central dogma. shinji and  
rei were just climbing out of the simulated entry plugs and gendo ikari stood face to face with her.  
  
another flash from her childhood. lydecker talking with the man in front of her.  
  
"YOU!" she gasped, and took a step back, "what are YOU doing here?!"  
  
"x5-452, wasn't it?" he asked coldly, "or max? you remember me, don't you?"  
  
"you talked with lydecker when i was a child. i was told you haven't talked to him about this."  
  
"of course not. the US has been on information freeze since unit 03 was sent in--we suspect they may have been with SEELE  
on sending us a previously infected evangelion unit." gendo turned to watch the screen of the retreating children.   
  
"what's going on here?"  
  
"we needed you. and you had escaped, and looked for solace here." gendo wore a half smile.  
"you can help us. you are the fifth child."  
  
"what?"  
  
"you heard me. you will help us defend our world from further destruction." gendo echoed lydecker's words seven years before.  
  
"hate to cut this short, but what does all of this have to do with me?"  
  
"your barcode. your intended purpose."  
  
"i am NOT to be used as a toy soldier!" she yelled at him, tackling him with ease and holding her  
knife to his throat. "i may have been raised that way, but i'm NOT the way you want me to be."  
  
there was a collective gasp when max leaped upon gendo. he waved everyone off who were worriedly advancing.  
  
"you going to kill me, max? wouldn't that be satisfying manticore's original intentions for you?"  
  
she got up off of him and composed herself.  
  
"help us and we'll throw manticore off your tracks. we're ready to compose a dummy plug of you and make a big  
deal of 'killing you off'."  
  
"what about my siblings?"  
  
"we'll find a way to notify all twelve of them."  
  
"twelve?" max's voice cracked, "only twelve?"  
  
"you never knew how many made it, did you?" he smiled, "we can help. help us, and we'll help you."  
  
max thought a second.  
  
"if i find out that you're lying, which is not assured, and you turn me in, i WILL kill you." she said, narrowing her eyes.  
"if you leak about me, i'll leak about you."  
  
"done." gendo stuck out his hand to shake. max hesitantly looked at it.  
  
"make eleven more dummy plugs and you got a deal." she said, "otherwise, i won't do this."  
  
"akagi-sensei?"  
  
"hai?" ritsuko came running.  
  
"show guevara-kun a live camera shot of the lab. she wants assurance that her siblings' dummy dupes will be  
manufactured."  
  
maya called up a live camera of the dummy plug factory. twelve womb-substitute tanks on standby.  
  
"we were ready for you to make a deal like this." gendo commented calmly, "you x5 kids are very terratorial  
about your siblings."  
  
"it runs in the family", max quipped nastily. she took gendo's hand. "you have a deal. for now."  
  
gendo just smiled.  
  
"show guevara-kun to the cages, then get her a plug suit. indoctrination will begin immediately."  
+++  
  
"this..." max said quietly, looking up at the three big evangelion figures, "i remember this..."  
  
"these are evas." misato said, gesturing to the robots, "units 00, 01..." they stopped  
in front of the large red one, "and yours. unit 02..."  
  
  



	2. Liebe Ausgang [Loving the Exit]

  
ONE MORE THING: THIS WOULD MAKE KAWORU THIS SIXTH CHILD. ^_^ ALSO, I'M CHANGING  
THE MAKEUP OF THE MANTICORE KIDS SLIGHTLY TO FIT THE EVANGELION PART OF THE STORY--ALL  
X5 CHILDREN IN ADDITION TO FELINE DNA IN THEIR GENETIC COCKTAILS, THEY WILL HAVE GENETIC MATERIAL FROM  
THE SYNTHETIC S2 UNIT THAT CAUSED SECOND IMPACT AND ADAM'S DNA, LIKE AYANAMI REI HAS..  
  
2. Liebe Ausgang [Loving the exit]  
  
max pressed the button on her new red plug suit. it clung to her everywhere. it was skin tight.  
she looked at herself in the mirror. she looked good in it..but...  
  
"max-kun! it's time for your first synchrograph test! hurry!" misato called to her, and max ran  
her hands through her hair and sighed. she wasn't exactly scared of the big beast, but..there was  
something so dark about it...  
  
"MAX-KUN!"  
  
"hai..hai..." she mumbled, and came out in the plug suit. the male construction staff stared. she made a face.  
"what the fuck are you guys staring at?"  
  
misato laughed quietly, "come on, we have to get you in the plug. they're just not  
used to seeing a girl in a plug suit like you since asuka."  
+++  
  
"okay, max-kun, just focus on being one with 02. that's how synch tests work." ritsuko told her  
over the intercom.  
  
max shut her eyes. [imagine it's tinga or zack], she told herself mentally, [imagine it's being one with  
all my siblings]..  
  
and so max focused. she missed her siblings so much. she threw herself head first into that void in her mind,  
that connected her with evangelion unit 02.  
  
"my god." ritsuko whispered as maya was calling up the results, "we haven't seen a synch rate this high ever. not  
since..shinji and unit 01 and that S2 engine incident..."  
  
"what?!" misato ran over, seeing the readings. over 150%. "is she in any danger of falling into klein space  
or having her ego borderline set in a loop?"  
  
"none, none whatsoever!" maya exclaimed, staring at the dummy plug tester.  
  
gendo just smiled behind his hands at his desk.  
  
misato turned to him, shocked, "is she an angel?"  
  
ritsuko saw tears streaming down max's face.  
  
"nope. all patterns read red, not blue." a tech answered.  
  
"she's got the same as rei does, doesn't she?" fuyutsuki leaned down and whispered to gendo,   
"adam's DNA?"  
  
gendo nodded. "that's why her synch rates are so high. by just wishing to be one with 02, she can do it."  
  
"SEELE knows."   
  
he nodded again.   
  
"are you really going to keep that deal with her?"  
  
"we have no choice, fuyutsuki-kyoju." he whispered back, "lydecker and the US come in and it all goes to hell."  
+++  
  
max was getting changed back into her regular clothes. maya was waiting for her, in awe, outside.   
  
"i never thought i would meet a child of manticore." she said quietly, "we'd heard about how you guys were  
raised but.." she struggled for words, "that was amazing. i've never seen readings like that before!"  
  
max looked down, then back up at maya. she shoved her against the locker.  
  
"don't think that manticore is a good place." she growled, "because it isn't. they tortured us, and killed  
many of my siblings all in the name of 'science'. don't be impressed."  
  
she let go of maya and stalked off.  
  
"it's not going to be easy to have her stay here." ritsuko said behind maya, "she's not asuka in personality,  
but she's not going to be easier to handle, either."  
+++  
  
max was sitting on the deck of geo-front, watching the sunset. she leaned against the balcony fence, with tears in her  
eyes.  
  
[why am i here?] she asked herself, [why did i agree to do this? i've got the world on my shoulders..]  
  
she shut her eyes, feeling the sun's warmth on her back.  
  
[i'm doing this for them. i can't let any of them die.] max slammed her fist against the  
railing, [i'm doing it so they can't ever be caught by that bastard again!]  
  
"hey." misato smiled, coming up behind her. "catch!" she tossed a cold can at her and max, turning around quickly,  
caught it immediately. "i know that must have been hard."  
  
"hard?!" max glared, "i've just made a deal with the devil, haven't i?"  
  
"you're doing it to protect your siblings. that's noble enough." misato opened her can of tea and drank from it.  
  
"it's okay." misato said quietly, "shinji was the same way in the beginning. hell, he's still a bit  
screwed up..."  
  
max suddenly felt a huge longing to open up to misato, even though she'd just met her today. she had  
a strong urge to throw herself upon misato and cry on her shoulder. but she kept her tears seething in her chest.  
  
"you were crying during the test." misato ventured boldly, sitting next to her on the bench,  
"was there anything wrong?"  
  
"my siblings." max said almost inaudibly, "i never even knew how many of them made it."  
  
"i'll try to get you some information, okay?" misato said, putting her hand on max's back. max flinched  
at the contact.  
  
misato also felt intense feelings for this girl. she seemed so strong yet so damaged and vulnerable at the same  
time. just like misato was inside.  
  
"thank you." she mumbled, bowing slightly.  
  
"oh yeah, almost forgot. you're going to be living with shinji and i. he's the pilot for 01. that's okay with you,  
right?"  
  
"i guess. i have nowhere else to stay. thank you again, katsuragi-ichi."  
  
"call me misato!" she smiled, and helped max up, "c'mon. work's done for today. let's go home to   
shinji-kun, okay?"  
  
max felt a slow smile spread across her face. she hoped she could become friends with misato.  
+++  
"tadaima." shinji called out softly. he saw that new boxes had replaced asuka's old ones. as much  
as he hated to admit, he missed asuka. he definately was horrified at the attack the angel had thrown  
at her--and wanted to help. but asuka was definately proud, TOO proud to recieve such help, making  
shinji all the more sad.   
  
he could smell instant curry cooking and felt his stomach lurch. he had to help misato learn to cook sometime.  
he kicked off his shoes and walked into the dining area.   
  
he dropped his bag in shock.  
  
"oh, shinji-kun, you're finally home!"  
  
"who..who..?" he studdered as max turned to him. he blushed a deep red as he took a long look at her.  
  
"meet guevara max, the fifth child."   
  
max turned to him and gave a slow smile. "yoroshiku-ne." she said softly.  
  
"she's from wyoming in the USA."  
  
"yoroshiku." he said, bowing formally. he went to sit at the table.  
  
"what held you up?" misato asked, handing him a can of cold tea.  
  
"oh. ritsuko-san just had a few extra things to test us on. weaponry..stuff like that."  
  
"right! i forgot about that."  
  
"ritsuko-san said that you would, misato-san."  
  
misato went purple with rage and shinji just laughed nervously. max laughed softly as well.  
misato was relieved to see max laughing. that girl seemed too guarded.  
  



	3. wer ist der Feind? [who is the enemy?]

  
3. wer ist der Feind? [who is the enemy?]  
  
the memories came with the shakes. max began to convulse. it was early morning in tokyo  
3--usually when her seizures came.  
  
[the x5 children were marching in lockstep around the halls of manticore and bunker 12.  
then they were practicing on the mats, sparring savagely with each other. then the tests, the  
electrodes attached to her head..]  
  
max reached for her bottle of tryptophan shakily, nearly knocking it over. she shoved six pills  
into her mouth and clamped her eyes shut, waiting for it to take effect.  
  
shinji had had to go to the bathroom, and peeked in on max. he was half asleep, and now,   
seeing her shake like a blender, he rushed in wide awake.  
  
"max-kun!" he shouted, rushing in, "are you okay?!"  
  
she resolvedly pushed him away.   
  
"i..i'm..okay.." she chittered as the tryptophan started to take effect, "it happens all the time."  
  
she sat up.   
  
"really?" he asked, "are you sure you're okay?"  
  
now max was completely still. she wiped sweat from her brow.  
  
"you know who i am, don't you?" she asked softly.  
  
"not really." he admitted, looking at his hands, "all i know is that you're the fifth child."  
  
"you must be the only one, then." she said, and gulped. she really didn't want to do this. but   
she knew she would be working with him, and he would find out some way or another. especially  
because of her seizures. "i..i was created by something called project manticore right before second  
impact happened. i was created to be a super soldier. i've got feline and shark DNA in me along with human.  
but...they screwed up when making me and my siblings. that's why i've got those seizures." she turned around  
and pushed her hair aside to reveal her barcode. she could hear a gasp from shinji. he reached out to   
touch the ridges of the black lines on her neck and she snapped back around. she couldn't handle that intimacy.  
  
  
"it was etched into my genetic code." she said, pointing to it. "they were horrible  
to us as children. whenever one of us didn't make the grade, or were caught with seizures, we were  
taken away. cut up. vivisected without anesthesia. then...we escaped. only twelve made it. i didn't know  
that til now. that's the only reason why i'm here." she looked back down at her naked toes. "i made  
a deal with commander ikari to have him make dummy plug corpses for me and my siblings to throw lydecker  
and the rest of them off my path."  
  
"knowing my father, he won't keep to it." shinji said, making a fist.  
  
"he's your father?"  
  
"i wish he weren't...he left me as a child. i hate him."   
  
"looks like we have something in common." max said quietly, looking at shinji. "we both hate our makers."  
+++  
max was called out of school again later that day.  
  
"what is it now, misato-san?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"we know your intelligence levels are off the scales, so you're not in any danger  
of failing in school. we need to start training you in your eva."  
  
"are you sure? doesn't stability have to happen first?" max shot back.  
  
"usually", misato sighed, "yes. but we no longer have time. the 16th and 17th angels  
are going to appear soon, and we don't have time. if we don't get you trained, well, it could  
mean the end."  
  
"third impact." max said thoughtfully. "you got me there. when do we start?"  
  
"now. get into your plug suit, and then you're going to get into your first real plug. we're going   
to do an emergency syncro and then weapons training."  
  
[weapons training..] max almost snorted to herself, [who does she think she's talking to? for god  
sakes, i was trained as a child!]  
  
"that's fine. what about shinji?"  
  
"you'll be doing weapons testing with him."  
  
after max got changed, she followed the instructions that ritsuko gave her from  
the intercom. she headed into the plug and sat down.  
  
"now, you're going to be kinda tossed upward as we insert the entry plug."   
  
"ENTRY START!" maya said over the com. the plug was inserted into unit 02.  
  
"how do you feel so far, max?" ritsuko asked.  
  
"a bit strange." she admitted.  
  
"it always is the first time. okay. intiate A-10 nerve connections."  
  
the colours and screens changed around max as a liquid began to fill up the cockpit.  
max felt an ancient stupid panic well within her. sure, she could hold her breath for about four minutes and thirty  
seconds, but still..  
  
"max, stop panicking." misato ordered her, "this is just LCL. it will automatically oxidize your blood. don't  
hold your breath or panic, it screws up the readings."  
  
she complied and let go of her breath. the liquid filled her and she wanted to vomit.  
  
"everything okay?"  
  
"i feel nauseous." she whispered.  
  
"all normal. unit 02 has reactivated."   
  
a collective sigh from the staff.  
  
"sempai.." maya whispered to ritsuko, "i was afraid that it wouldn't go well."  
  
"everyone was."  
  
but with max's telescopic hearing, she heard maya in the control panel.  
  
"how do you feel, max?"  
  
"it's all so much clearer." she said in wonder. she always knew her sight, strength and other  
senses were four times better than other normal humans, but still. everything  
was so pure. this was just amazing.  
"how do i move in it?"  
  
"imagine it. the nerve connections should do the rest."  
  
"my god, sempai! look at these readings!" maya pointed at the screen,  
"her syncroratings are 167%! this is incredible!"  
  
"max is in no danger of heading into klein space or an ego loop." hyuga said, monitoring  
the readings.  
  
max imagined moving her right hand, and it worked.  
  
gendo watched, very satisfied with the results.  
  
all of a sudden, the alarms started going off. max jerked at the loud sound, her arm  
accidentally hitting the glass pane of control.  
  
"sorry." she said.  
  
"object has been identified crossing the tokyo-2 area!" hyuga reported, "damage also confirmed."  
  
"pattern is blue!" maya shouted over the chaos.  
  
"an angel!?" ritsuko gasped, "but we just had one last week!"  
  
"looks like they're getting impatient, eh, ikari-kun?" fuyutsuki said quietly, then shouted,   
"all hands, go to first stage alert!"  
  
  
  



	4. Verhindernsonnenaufgang [preventing sunr...

  
4. Verhindernsonnenaufgang [preventing sunrise]  
  
  
  
"okay, max-kun. we won't have time to test you on weaponry. take unit 02 to cage 5!" misato  
shouted over the intercom. "get shinji over here! isoide!"  
  
"so how do i do this?"  
  
"all you have to do is take those reins that help you move and imagine the rest. you'll have  
to act quickly. we're counting on you!"  
  
"unit 02 now on catapult seven."  
  
"unit 02 HASHIN [LAUNCH]!"  
+++  
  
max had traveled up the launch tunnels and now was standing on the streets of tokyo-3.  
after the interlocks were cut, max lurched forward.  
  
"max, just concentrate on moving right now. that's all you can do."  
  
max imagined, and concentrated as hard as she could. she was walking, running, toward the target.  
everyone in the control room was shocked. no one had grasped the concept of moving the eva so quickly before.  
she had a gun with her.  
  
[i can't fail!] her brain processed wildly, [zack and the others are counting on me! i can't fail  
or else i'll be back at manticore for the rest of my life!]  
  
"shinji! back up unit 02!"  
  
"hai!"  
  
[why do i have to back her up?] he wondered angrily, [she's a rookie, after all..]  
  
max charged straight for the angel. it whipped out an arm at her and she dodged it with her superhuman  
reflexes.  
  
"sugoi!" hyuga whispered in awe, "manticore's children are just amazing!"  
  
the angel hit her with an amplified AT field and she was knocked on her ass. she was  
instantly on her feet again.  
  
max was almost enjoying this. it was her feline DNA, she supposed. this was easy.  
it was like zen.  
  
shinji was disturbed by the calm on max's face during this. he remembered her words and shivered.  
  
max lunged at the angel, snapping the AT field easily.  
  
[i have to protect my family!] her mind screamed. adrenaline was in her veins now, not blood.  
  
she began to scream wildly, repeatedly hitting the angel.  
  
[i can't let lydecker have them!]  
  
shinji covered his ears. he was scared now. just what the hell was max? what was his father thinking?  
  
max continued to gut the angel. soon it was making feeble attempts to breathe. max and unit 02's shoulders flared out,  
and she tore the head off the angel and simultaneously smashing her arm through its chest.  
  
hyuga, maya, ritsuko and everyone else at headquarters stood with their hands to their mouths in horror.  
gendo smiled behind his hands. it was damn good he'd managed to find this girl. he silently thanked   
lydecker for putting these kids in such good shape.  
  
max looked down, coming down from the adrenaline. she gasped at what she had done.  
the angel was completely gutted.  
  
she could hear shinji screaming and vomiting.  
  
max went completely cold. sure, she took pleasure in kicking bad guy ass, but she rarely killed. she'd only killed once before.  
that death row inmate who they thought was the 'nomalie..memories plagued her.  
  
it all went black.  
  
"unit 02 has gone silent!"  
  
"nani?" shrieked ritsuko, "what the hell happened?"  
  
"psychological disturbance near the ego borderline! we think they might  
by traumatic memories!"  
  
"eject the plug and recover the pilot!"  
  
"01 has also gone silent, a few moments before 02!"  
  
"what the hell is this?"  
  
"he passed out. probably because of what he saw. remember when he had to kill 03 with toji inside? he passed  
out and had to be removed forcably." misato said quietly, "alright, let's get UN dept. 2 out to clean up."  
  
+++  
  
max woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.  
  
"what happened?" she asked outloud. her mind was foggy from the over use of all that adrenaline. her  
muscles faintly ached.  
  
then she remembered the angel attack.  
  
"oh god." she put a hand to her forehead. her hand began to quake. "fuck!" she muttered. there was no tryptophan anywhere.  
  
she panicked. without it, she'd die.  
  
shinji came in.  
  
"looking for these?" he asked darkly, throwing her the pills. she shoveled them in her mouth until the seizure stopped.  
  
"you were screaming." she said quietly.   
  
"of course i was." he said softly, looking down. "you were kicking the hell out of that angel. i've  
never seen anything like it. and that look on your face..." he shuddered.  
  
"i can't apologize for that." she said, glaring at him. "it was the way i was made. don't you get it,  
shinji? i was engineered to kill. but i haven't lived my life that way."  
  
"i thought you were kidding." he said lamely.  
  
"no. i'm not." she sighed and looked at her hands. "we were the defective generation, but the strongest so far when they made us.  
there're x6s and x7s in the works, too. but not defective like me."  
  
"you're not defective." he said after a silence. "you got away, didn't you? i can't get away from my past.  
not from father..." he pounded the bed.  
  
"you really hate him, don't you?"  
  
"he tried to make me kill toji with my own hands! i do hate him!"  
  
"i don't know how to feel about that one. i never really had parents. i guess you could say lydecker was,  
but then again, he was too busy 'training' us to care.."  
  
"father killed my mother!"  
  
"lydecker killed all of our mothers. or put them in psych wards..."  
  
the door opened and rei came in.  
  
"ayanami!" shinji said, shocked, "you're better?"  
  
"hai. i'll be functional in another day or two." she said mechanically. "so this  
is the new pilot?"  
  
"yes." max said quietly, "i'm max." she held out her hand. ayanami looked at it calmly.  
  
"commander ikari wants to see you, max." she said, then spun on her heels and left.  
  
"she's strange." max replied to the door.  
  
"yes, she is."  
  
"i guess i better go see your father.." 


	5. das Plastikmädchen oder, versteckend von...

  
5. das Plastikmädchen oder, versteckend von den Fäserchen [the plastic girl, or, hiding from the fuzz]  
  
"you wanted to see me, ikari-shidae?" max asked, bowing slightly. she hated this man.  
he, who had treated her like lydecker in the past. she barely consealed her hatred from him.  
  
"yes. you did a superb job today."  
  
"thank you, sir."  
  
"lydecker raised you well."  
  
max glared at him.  
  
"so you think, sir." she muttered softly, "he killed my siblings in the name of science."  
  
"it was war." gendo smiled behind his hands.  
  
"subhuman, superhuman.." she said in the same soft tone, and shrugged, "all the same  
to you, right?"  
  
"i'm very grateful that you've come here. my son and rei probably couldn't have defeated the angel  
alone, since asuka has been out of commission..."  
  
max bit her tongue. this man held her fate in his gloved palms.   
  
"anyway, i wanted to show you the dummy plug corpses of you and your siblings."  
  
"does the US know about the dummy plug system?" she asked calmly.  
  
"no. since the delivery of unit 03, later destroyed by the angel, the US has been  
on freeze. we believe that they delivered us an intentionally infected unit."  
  
"so the corpses will pass muster?"  
  
"NERV was able to get ahold of your x5 genetic makeup. you and your siblings do not  
differ all that much. all we did was clone it with the dummy plug DNA materials and grow them.  
not to worry. the dummy plugs themselves are soulless containers. so your cloned corpses did not  
really have feelings or memories. the dummy plug as it is already serves as the backbone of the  
synthetic eva system and extra parts for rei."  
  
"so they really weren't alive." she said softly, and strangely, it was reassuring.  
  
"in the biological sense, they were. but in the mental sense, they were not."  
  
"when are you going to deliver them?"  
  
"krit, syl, jace, and tinga are already on their way. their bodies will be scattered all over the  
continental US. via NERV intelligence, lydecker will be notified anonymously.  
  
"thank you." she said quietly, so angry not wanting to speak.  
  
"you are dismissed."  
  
+++  
  
max swam laps in the NERV employee pool. she hated the pool. it brought back such bad memories.   
but ritsuko said that it would help her get adjusted to LCL pressures in the entry plug.  
so, she did it. just to adjust herself and nothing more.  
  
[the children that are zack, max and jack are under the water in the manticore training pool. they were doing a lung  
expanding activity under the water. lydecker carefully timed them above. three minutes thirty seconds and  
counting. jack began to struggle. max made little wave motions with her hand, as apart  
of their secret sign language. it meant to calm down. jack still struggled. finally, at four minutes five seconds,  
lydecker released the chains that bound them to the bottom of the pool. jack shot up and  
struggled for breath, max helped him up.  
  
she and zack glared at lydecker...]  
  
max got out, toweling her body and hair off. she then saw ayanami rei looking at her from the corner of the poolside.  
  
"hello, pilot." she said almost mechanically.  
  
"hello, rei. you mind if i call you that?" max tried to smile. but this girl was so cold inside. and familiar..  
  
"no."  
  
"are you here to do LCL pressure too?"  
  
"i am here to finish my physical therapy." she said in her calm quiet voice.  
  
"have fun."  
  
"yes."  
  
but max had the feeling that ayanami rei had no idea what fun was.  
  
+++  
  
max sat up on the roof of misato's apartment house. she always felt better in high places. she  
distantly remembered the stories that ben used to tell her and the others in the High Place..where  
they worshiped the Blue Lady.  
  
she missed her siblings so much. she brushed tears away in the warm moonlight. ever since second impact,  
it had been perpetual summer in japan.   
  
shinji looked up from the balcony.  
  
"max-kun! is that you? why are you up there?"  
  
"come on up." she smiled, dangling her legs down at him.  
  
"it's too far! i'll fall!"  
  
"wuss." she grinned, and winked at the moon.  
  
"why are you up there?" he repeated.  
  
"just thinkin'."   
  
"aren't you scared?"  
  
"i've always felt more comfortable in high places. more so than in low ones. must be  
the feline DNA.." she laughed, throwing back her head. "i'll come down. i'm hungry anyway.."  
  
she secured the harness around her hips and leapt down. shinji was terrified as she landed perfectly  
on her feet.  
  
"so, you gonna feed me or what?" she asked with a wolfish grin. he blushed and led the way in.  
  
+++  
  
"mm..this is great!" max wolfed down the instant curry with ramen.   
  
"isn't it just?" misato slurred, drinking more beer.  
  
"i don't know how you can eat this.." shinji muttered, staring at his plate. pen pen squawked his  
agreement from his bowl.  
  
ritsuko nodded down at her plate. misato had invited her to dinner.  
  
"we have to teach misato how to cook." she whispered to shinji and nodded.  
  
"i heard that!" misato screamed angrily, then burped and passed out.  
  
shinji sweatdropped and laughed nervously.  
  
"that's our misato."  
  
"does she always do this?" max asked with a smile.  
  
"every night.." ritsuko sighed, "when she isn't fucking kaji.."  
  
"oh yes. i've met him. quite a slut." max laughed, drinking her tea.  
  
ritsuko just looked down and blushed, glowering at the table.  
  
"asuka had a crush on him too..." shinji murmured, and silence fell like stone.  
  
"speaking of asuka, i checked up on her today.."  
  
"yes, ritsuko-san?" shinji asked.  
  
"she's still dwindling into depression. she's in complete catatonia now."  
  
"can we visit her?" max asked and felt strange. out of place.  
  
"nope. she's completely locked up."  
+++  
  
max sat in school. shinji and rei were there too, as they had to make up a lot of work.  
  
"so, this tragic event in the last year of the 20th century was called second impact.."  
  
the sensei droned on and on and on and on.   
  
[do they really believe this bullshit?] she wondered. max knew what really happened, after all...  
  
DING! a message demanded from her laptop screen. all the students had laptops on their desks.  
  
"HEY MAX DO U HAVE A BOYFRIEND? -KENSUKE" read the message. max looked back at him and he blushed. it had  
been a dare to admit his feelings about the new girl to her. she rolled her eyes.  
  
sometimes it was surprisingly easy to be a normal, teenage girl. 


	6. Liebes Maedchen [Beloved Maiden]

6. liebes maedchen [beloved maiden]  
  
rei lay on her bed, thinking. her chin was above her hands on the pillow, her body  
splayed out carelessly in her school fuku. ikari-shidae had let her out early after  
extensive dummy plug testing with him and akagi-hakasei. her limbs ached and her mind was  
tired, but she refused to admit it.  
  
[who is that pilot?] she wondered, [what is she? she's familiar. not like ikari-kun is familiar. like..  
like..i've known her before..deja vu? why is she here? for what purpose? whose purpose? like me?]  
  
rei closed her red eyes.  
  
[like me?]  
  
+++  
  
"stand! bow!" hikari commanded the class. max absently did so, her mind on other things. she packed her things  
in her white school bag.  
  
[ayanami rei..] she thought, [now i recognize her!] the realization came like a bolt of lightning...  
  
[the manticore children are five years old, and being taught in the classroom. more slides of recon,  
enemy, traitor, deserter...the usual brainwash rigamarole. max, for once, was in the back of the class.  
she let her eyes wander briefly as ikari-shidae walked by with lydecker. ikari had been here before, yes, and  
recently familiar. he had watched them train calmly, as if it were an everyday activity. but now, there was a little,  
pale, blue-haired girl with them.  
  
"you're pleased with her?" she could hear lydecker saying with telescopic hearing. she noticed that  
ikari was gripping the child's hand almost obsessively. was she a new soldier? a transgen like them?  
  
"mmm. yes. you used what i think you used? what i requested?"  
  
"yes. beautiful, isn't she?" lydecker gently ran a finger down her feline cheek.  
  
what was going on? max wondered. the girl looked at her, with the same vacant look that many of her siblings had. she  
stifled a gasp.  
  
"EYES FRONT!" a tac team leader growled at her, and she was jolted forward. lydecker shot her a disapproving look as he walked by.  
before aquisecing to the onslaught of slides' images, she heard lydecker say,  
  
"ikari yui and adam's DNA..a beautiful combination..."]  
  
"max-kun?" hikari chirped to her, breaking her out of her memories, "daijoubu [are you okay]?"  
  
max looked wide-eyed at her, wiping sweat from her brow. she quickly covered with a shy smile.  
  
"hai. it's just so hot here in japan!"  
  
"yes, it is." hikari smiled warmly, "i was wondering, max-kun..since you're so amazingly good at advanced physics, do you think  
you could help me for tommorrow's test?"  
  
"i think i can swing that." max smiled.  
  
"good. then you can walk home with me." they walked out to get their shoes, hikari chirping along with   
max thinking, half concentrating on her. "i would have asked kensuke-kun, but he's moved away. our family's  
about to move, too. you're staying with shinji-kun, right? are you going to move?"  
  
"huh? oh, i'm not sure. it's up to misato-san, i guess."  
  
"how's asuka-chan? do you know?"  
  
max stopped and looked down. "i'm not sure." she said, "i don't know if i can really   
talk about it..."  
  
a car roared up behind them, and stopped suddenly along side them. it was blue, the sinking rays of light elegantly gleaming upon it.  
  
"MAX-KUN!" misato roared, "you were supposed to be with shinji twenty minutes ago! let's go! let's go!"  
  
"oh. oops. forgot." max registered a small, goofy smile. "sorry." she dug in her bag and handed all of her not-needed advanced  
physics notes to hikari. "here. you can use these. i won't need them."  
  
"oh, i couldn't! you might need them!"  
  
"i won't. take them. you should be able to understand them pretty well."  
  
"MAX-KUN! ISOIDE [NOW]!"  
  
"okay, okay." she clambered into the car. "sorry, inchou. maybe some other time."  
  
they roared away, and hikari smiled. the new girl wasn't so strange after all.  
  
+++  
  
"good to see you're making friends, but that was kinda bad timing." misato said calmly, "sorry i yelled. NERV's applying  
the pressure for your training."  
  
"i'm so goddamn sick of training." max said flatly, "i did it most of my childhood, i ran away to get away from it.  
don't you think i've been trained enough?"  
  
"yes, you were trained. but not for this sort of combat." misato stopped at a red light, then looked at her.  
"max, i really am sorry for what manticore..what we at NERV done to you. but..the world has projected its hopes  
onto you since you were born. it's a selfish cause, and i can't really apologize for it. but please, try to understand..."  
  
"understand?! you want me to understand that my siblings, who i love more than my own life, my own freedom..many killed for your damn joint  
experiments? you want me to understand THAT?!" max's voice had been rising, and how she was undecourously shouting at misato. she caught and  
composed herself.  
  
a silence descended in the car, as they boarded the car train down to NERV headquarters.  
  
"something happened to me as a child, as well." misato said softly, gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles, "my  
father was the infamous katsuragi-kyouju...i'm sure you were told as a child about the katsuragi expedition to test the first S2 engine?  
that was my father's expedition. we woke up adam and everyone but me died." misato spoke haltingly. after all of these years, it was  
still hard to talk about...   
  
"dad put me in the escape pod, and gave me his necklace in case he didn't make it. he put me to sleep awhile, but when i woke.." misato's voice trembled, and she  
hated herself for it..she'd hated her father. "i woke up the exact moment that adam devoured everyone whole. i was mute for five years straight after."  
  
the train stopped at the station. "you're not the only one who has suffered, max."  
  
silence once more.  
  
"i'm...i don't know what...i..." max looked at her hands. she had heard about the katsuragi research team and the girl..but she'd never thought...misato?  
she began again. "i'm sorry." god, how strange that was for max! never apologize, lydecker had always taught them. she was breaking yet another manticore code.  
  
"don't be." misato looked at her, and a strange smile crossed her face. "i'm sorry for your childhood, but...it couldn't be helped. you couldn't help how you were  
born...what you are. but you need to be proud of that. you need to take pride in your heritage, who you are--not who you were, or what you were."  
  
max felt a smile start on her own face. a shy one. a strange feeling was blooming inside of her...what was this feeling? this tenderness? friendship?  
  
"arigato." she felt tears in her eyes, "misato-san...ariga.."  
  
"stop that. weakness is bad, remember?" misato laughed, "c'mon, soldier girl. let's go get you in your plug." 


End file.
